May, 2011 The Rise of the McWorker The evidence points to the latter. According to a recent analysis
by the National Employment Law Project (NELP), the biggest growth in
private-sector job creation in the past year occurred in positions
in the low-wage retail, administrative, and food service sectors of
the economy. While 23% of the jobs lost in the Great Recession that
followed the economic meltdown of 2008 were “low-wage” (those
paying $9-$13 an hour), 49% of new jobs added in the sluggish
“recovery” are in those same low-wage industries. On the other
end of the spectrum, 40% of the jobs lost paid high wages ($19-$31
an hour), while a mere 14% of new jobs pay similarly high wages.
For more read
Welcome
to the McJobs Recovery Andy Kroll, TomDispatch

"The downward pressure on compensation is connected to the
rapid erosion of labor-union power. In 2012, unions lost 400,000 members, or 2.7
percent, and their representation in the labor force fell to 9.3 percent, from
9.6 percent in 2011 and more than 25 percent in the 1960s. I
n the private sector, unionization fell to 6.3 percent, with the sharpest
declines in manufacturing and construction. <

More states are passing right-to-work laws, which allow
employees in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying union dues. In the past
year, private-sectyees in right-to- work states earned 9.8 percent less
than workers in other states. Manufacturing jobs pay 7.4 percent less in
right-to-work states. On the other hand, the number of jobs in such states grew
4.9 percent in the past three years, compared with 3.9 percent in
non-right-to-work states.

Municipal governments are under pressure to cut costs.
Local tax collection is subdued because of earlier declines in property
assessments and taxes, which account for 79 percent of revenue. State tax
collections have revived, thanks to increases in corporate and personal income
taxes and in sales taxes. Yet many states still face budget problems because of
the fading effects of the federal stimulus enacted in 2009, which was used for
infrastructure projects and to preserve teachers’ jobs. In addition, the
Medicaid costs borne by the states are ballooning, and temporary taxes
instituted during the recession are expiring. Vastly underfunded defined-benefit
pensions are also fueling state and local government retrenchment."